Possibility of the existence of the Congolese giant spider

reply to post by getreadyalready


That is one ugly bug! I think Bear Grylls killed and ate one of those in a cave.

.............

Couldn't find the clip so here's one of him eating a camel spider for good measure.

reply to post by getreadyalready

Thanks for the pic. I have seen something like that around rain barrels or standing water. I think the ones we have are a bit more gray in color. I do remember smelling vinegar before when I killed a bug.

We get pinon beetles. They're not big but if you mess with them they give off a concentrated pine smell. It's pretty potent.

Hmmm another thing to add to the catalogue of mysterious creatures, pretty cool though. Reminds me of the time my mum thought it was a good idea to take me to the zoo and get me to hold a young goliath bird eating spider in an attempt to get me over my fear of spiders, just made the whole thing a hella lot worse.

However i have recently found the cure for my fear and that was knowledge, yep learnt about all the spiders in my country (England) and now know there's nothing to be afraid of . Although i think that Congolese spider would give me a run for my money

I don't know if it's possible for the same reasons someone pointed out on page one, however i hope it is possible. Spiders are brilliant creatures.

However if a spider were that big then i am sure there wouldn't be many of them. Spiders can be very terratorial as can be evidence by the ground dwelling spiders in the amazon among others. So it really would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

However i find it interesting the locals talked about the spider webs. Maybe they came across massive webs created by lots of small spiders and made the assumption it must have been a massive spider.

But anyway yeah i hope they find a massive spider

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


We have those spiders here in Arizona as well, here they're called sun spiders. I've found some BIG ones in my treks through the desert looking for snakes and bugs as a kid, they're so insanely fast and aggressive too, but I don't think they're dangerous to humans, other than hurting like hell to get bit by. As somebody else has said, there's alot of myths about camel spiders (sun spiders in the USA).

Not sure about the possibility of a 5 foot spider, but ya never know.

reply to post by stellify


Fat

reply to post by awake_and_aware


Thankyou for your in depth analysis. I don't mean to trouble you but any thoughts on the possibility of the existance of the Congolese Giant Spider?

reply to post by 27jd


I think they could find a 3 to 5 foot spider in the Congo only because of my experience at the Mokelumne River in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Hiking along the river with my German Sheppard, who would bark when he found a (spider or tarantula) I don't know. They were 15 to 18 inches wide. When alerted by my dog I would get a piece of shale and smash these spiders as to continue on the path. They were black and had legs a half inch wide. They were very aggressive and as I was about to throw a slab of shale on one, it jumped from 4 to 6 feet away and landed on my chest. I didn't get bit but at that point I turned back.

So my point is if they could evolve to that size in an average wooded area in California, I think the Congo could produce larger ones

Originally posted by 27jd
reply to post by Big Raging Loner

 

As somebody else has said, there's alot of myths about camel spiders (sun spiders in the USA).

Not least is the fact that camel spiders are not spiders:

en.wikipedia.org...

Rob.

Originally posted by Tribble
So my point is if they could evolve to that size in an average wooded area in California, I think the Congo could produce larger ones

Yeah, we get some big desert tarantulas here in AZ as well, but I've noticed the ones up north, in the forest, are alot darker and more aggressive. So, plants and oxygen must play a part in their behavior as well. Down here in the desert, they aren't aggressive at all.

I'm sure there could be a few freak specimens of spiders around the world, with some sort of growth disorder which probably shortens their lifespans, like people. At this point, my logical side says that in general, they've evolved to compete in the small-sized world of bugs and I believe that their biology limits their size as the experts say.

Originally posted by d60944
Not least is the fact that camel spiders are not spiders:

en.wikipedia.org...

Rob.

Well, right. They're arachnids, and they share so many characteristics with spiders, we call them spiders. I think they are a pretty good cross between a scorpion and spider personally. They run smooth like scorpions, just faster. They're eyes are set kinda like scorpions too.

Hey im still trying to get in touch with my uncle to see if i can get any info for your thread, Im going to call him again in about a half a hour to see if i can get him this time.
Hopefully he has some mad story about whopper spiders from hell for you
,keep up the good work!!

reply to post by johnny c


Thanks Johhny C keep us posted!

Gonna do some research now into the lead zoologist in the story see if there is anything either to write him off as a source, or strengthen his reports!

[edit on 14-8-2010 by Big Raging Loner]

I bet they are real: insects in the right environment evolve some unique adaptations - they are probably carrion feeders like vultures, existing on monkeys and such that fall to the jungle floor and die.

I live in florida; me and the girlfriend got freaked out by a wolf-spider that was about five inches across - you could hear its feet as it ran up a set of blinds. Never heard a spider run before.

I caught it in a trash bag and tossed its ass out in the orange grove - the damned thing jumped at me as soon as I released it.

I had been getting a lot of stuff internationally on Ebay - I wonder if it was one of those big aggressive funnel-web spiders from Australia that somehow just hitched a ride in my package.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


I often find myself cringing and grossed out when i see bear grylls eating some gross bug on tv. he crunches the legs and shells, he swallows the goo that pops out when they explode, and i don't remember him ever saying "mmmm goddammit that tasted GOOD!"...

he's a sick mo'fo...

me personally, i'll pass on the entree of crunchy bugs.

and fwiw i think bear gryll's cameraman is the hardest dude in the universe!


and as for the congolese monster spider...

23

(edit for shpelin)

(2nd edit to try again to make hudder> read as )

grrr..

(3rd edit - SHUDDER !!! FFS... i repeat - 'SHUDDER' ;( )


[edit on 14-8-2010 by twentythreedom]

[edit on 14-8-2010 by twentythreedom]

[edit on 14-8-2010 by twentythreedom]

Golf Ball? I have seen wolf spiders larger than a sheet of paper! On the St. Mark's trail that leads from Tallahassee down to the coast at St. Marks, these things make webs 40 feet across! They build their webs about 20 feet up in the pine trees so that they miss the bicycles and joggers. From the ground they appear bigger than a hand, but when they occasionally drop and are on the ground in front of you, they are actually much BIGGER!

When a spider that is almost a 6-8 inches across, jumps out of a tree from 30 feet up, and does push ups in front of you to intimidate, it creates a prehistoric irrational fear and makes a 200lb well conditioned grown man jump and squeal like a little girl, trust me!!!

I grew up in Southwestern Ohio, in the outskirts of Cincinnati. Always lived right on the edge of a dense woods. I'll never ever forget this one night my oldest brother and I went out to a nearby basketball court shared by our neighbors and us at about 9 o'clock at night or so.

FULL OF WOLF SPIDERS. Enormous. They are very hairy, usually oblong-shaped, with a roughly 3 x 7 inch leg span. Thick hairy legs. Usually black or dark gray. We decided to put the basketball down, grab some nearby bricks and sticks, and clear the courts. Well - we never played basketball that night. Sure if you whack them with sticks, they'll scurry away faster than you're comfortable with. But if you try to kill one, you'd better be prepared for war.

I remember taking a brick, weighed 5 pounds, and really slamming it hard right on top of one of the bigger ****ers. It scared me to get so close to it, because those those things can really move - but sure enough I got him. But he didn't die! It hardly even crushed him - the devil crawled out from under the brick. It was bleeding, and a bit slower than before, but it didn't look very wounded.

I forget whether I finished the job or not, that became instantly irrelevant. I realized how powerful these things were right there and then. There were so many others on the court that my brother and I just left after that. I often joke that spiders are aliens from another planet because of this incident.

[edit on 14-8-2010 by Son of Will]

reply to post by Son of Will


A lot of stories about huge Wolf spiders. I've heard stories of them following people! But I don't now how true that is.

As for spiders hitching a ride in packaging, scarily happens all the time, and recently a man in the UK found what he thought was a funnel web.

The spider was not formally identified but it may have simply been a tube web. Still it is not outside of the realms of possibility.

this work?
i guess not.




[edit on 15-8-2010 by fooks]


whoo hoo! ok, this puppy attacked me when i was shaving! glad i had a safty razor.

had to destroy it but it was a mighty battle! i am a size 9.

i can't tell you the battle, btw this guy is soaking wet with bygon so it looks smaller!

[edit on 15-8-2010 by fooks]

[edit on 15-8-2010 by fooks]

reply to post by fooks


Thanks fooks for the snapshot from the movie! I can just see the Zack Snyder style slow mo as it came crashing down in front of you!

I have to say although I starred you I do not condone the killing of such monsters.

reply to post by twentythreedom


I've never eaten a spider (i don't think, unless in my sleep!) but i have eaten a few different insects. Some of them are really quite tasty, grasshoppers, crickets, wood lice and others are perfectly good eating. The grasshoppers and crickets taste sort of nutty once you roast them, the wood lice taste sort of like fishy chicken.

Insects are one of the most nutriient dense foods around. In fact the human race could drastically reduce the amount of land we need to farm if we ate insects instead of cows, they would produce less pollution as well along with being healthier than most meats.

As for this giant spider, i really hope it exists, it would be such an amazing find, worthy of mainstream news.

Of course we may end up submitting to our eight legged masters!